Senior Momentum by Zoe Tummillo — January 2020
An old Navy friend used that term, and I have found myself thinking it frequently in the last three years, oftener in recent months. Steady on, he said, implied continuing to move forward, no matter what, while also grappling with whatever challenges your particular “sea” presents.
We have quite a new year looming! Whatever our persuasions may be, political or otherwise, 2020 promises to test us greatly. My intentions will be to try to meet it fairly and squarely, albeit with difficulty, while I try to remember to Steady on...
I do not recall a political climate as damaging to associations, individuals, friendships and even family relations as the one launched by our current administration. Supporter or adversary, the passions have reached an intensity that seems unique to me. In the “Big Picture” (if one can force oneself to pause long enough to consider it) I see a huge need to consider the philosophy of Steady on, and a huge need to measure one’s choices against reckless acceleration or action.
Leadership on both sides of the political battlefields seems to be damned if they do and damned if they don’t either hurry up or slow down! Steady on doesn’t advocate either. Rather, I take it to simply suggest self-grounding, a try for an open mind, a rejection of recklessness ... and the like.
Happy New Year? Gosh; I hope so. I am speculating on what it will look like. In my mid 80’s, of course, the first thing that would make it happy for me would be to maintain my health and, well, still be around! Along with wanting everything good and safe and happy for those I love, I worry about what those I love will have of Country and Environment twenty and thirty years from now when I am long gone!
So, how can any of us best steer that Steady On thing? How can each of us best manage it for those future twenty and thirty years looming? I know several cynics (a few worse than me!) whose futuristic philosophies amount to: It doesn’t matter. It never has. None of this matters. It never will. That’s where it begins and ends for many. My cynicism just isn’t that all encompassing!
Aside from the splash and boom of Times Square at midnight (and its clones all over our nation, as time zone after time zone follows), ushering in the new year gets to all of us in one way or another. (Even the deniers – who prove my point by denying!) We all kind of look at January 1 as another chance to start over, with a clean slate; well, maybe just a new slate!
I was talking a few days ago with a fellow political junkie who was wondering if he could put aside his anxiety, anger, disappointment, etc., and actually try to start off 2020 with an open mind and a more positive attitude. He said it would involve trust, and he finds it almost impossible to trust our leaders anymore. (I didn’t offer anything. I have my own challenges!)
I think my friend’s dilemma is all around us; I do not think he is alone. Usually, the cock-eyed optimist in me manages to push through and past the cynic in me. I dig deep into the integrity that I know lies in our Constitution and I cheer myself up by trusting that.
